Looking around the room for any sign of life one might be able to crush, despite its revolting tendency to come back right away, Yuki found nothing. Though the room led into many more rooms, as the whole floor seemed to not have any doors to close. But then, a noise, faint and peaceful, caught her attention.
Right in the next room, was a king sized bed with messy sheets and a sleeping person inside. Masami's breathing quiet and steady, until it stopped, and his blood spilled over the white sheets and walls. Though she was about to do the same, this was not Yuki's work.
From under the bed, Cinderella rolled over the floor, before jumping up and tilting her head while glancing at the now red stained bed. Her gaze turned back to Yuki, eventually letting herself fall flat onto the bed, only to roll over to her side with slow and deliberate movements, with her legs folded and leaning her cheek into the palm of her hand with an alluring smirk.
"Maybe we got off at the wrong foot, you and I… I did like him, y'know? He made me feel all fuzzy inside~.. But maybe this suffices as a peace offering?"
"…"
"You are so pretty… Your eyes catch my gaze like they are a net and I'm just a tiny little fishy… Your curves make me feel tingly all over, and your voice has me—"
—Exploding. Though her body immediately regenerated, and she chose to not duplicate for some reason. It was unlikely that she could not, because Yuki did not do anything different this time. Cinderella merely let out a deep sigh, drawing around in the liquid blood that had not completely dried into the sheets and formed a little puddle.
"You are amazing~… But I wanna let you know that the deliberate killing without causing separation did not change anything… A drop of blood suffices, so you kinda did that for nothing. Sorry. The only reason why I don't always create infinite copies out of a single bleeding injury is because it's a bit irritating and slower when it's kust blood. Ooh, a weakness! Maybe you will make something of it~? Probably not~ I know I wouldn't! And I'm pretty smart myself, though my greatest talent lies somewhere else~…"
"You have no noteworthy talents. I am certain I'm better than you in any discipline. It's part of what makes you worthless."
"Ahaha, you're so funny. I love your humorous and witty remarks. They make you fun to talk to. Unlike Yama-boy, who's usually a bit of a bummer in conversation… Not that he has any longer ones with me…"
"How could he, when I keep his mouth occupied~?"
"See? That's what I mean!"
"Haha, you're right! I am awesome! Hey, y'know what? I've just had a crazy idea!"
"Really? What is it~!?"
Yuki threw a glass bottle at Cinderella's head, at which a small purple cloud appeared.
"Toxins!"
Cinderella began caughing violently, but only for a moment. Sadly, since her body regenerated back into the same state each time continuously, toxins just did nothing and were used up in no time.
"Any other crazy ideas, boo~?"
Yuki's eye visibly twitched at that. She was just getting into a more playful mood, but now not so much.
"Yeah, I do have some more…"
Cinderella was pulled towards Yuki by an invisible force, of which she was unsure whether she would have been able to resist if she tried, but of course she did not even try. Her throat ended up in Yuki's left hand, where she was held firmly but not in a lethal way.
"The faster the heart beat the better the ability, yes…?"
Yuki's dark eyes looked at Cinderella's heart with a piercing gaze, while Cinderella's excitement filled eyes looked back at her with pure joy and lust.
"Staring at my chest, interested in what's underneath?"
"Oh, I sure am… Brace yourself, this might be the first time you are going to feel physical discomfort like that…"
"Sorry, but I generally don't feel discom— Eurgh…?"
Having to caugh up blood, she was surprised when Yuki punched a hole into her chest and physically grabbed a hold onto her heart.
"W-what are you…?"
"Shh…"
As Yuki began squeezing the heart, Cinderella felt how her heart rate was forcefully lowered simply by her heart lacking the ability to extend through Yuki's firm grip, bringing her heart to an abrupt stop.
"This… Changes nothing…!"
"Sure it does… You feel this, yes? You use your ability to stop the pain… Even if your regeneration is a separate thing, it's usefulness remains tied to that special heart of yours… How romantic…"
"S-so… I can deal with a bit of pain…! "
"I'm counting on it~…"
"I mean, if you are into that…"
"Urgh, you make everything weird and repulsive…"
"Do you do this kind of stuff with Yama-boy too~?"
"…You know, I've been thinking about your ability a lot. Nauseating and vile as it is, it does have me interested in it… I'd really like to have it for myself… A never ending amount of me, doesn't that just sound literally perfect~? It sure does, yes… But then I discovered the fatal flaw. You guys share a concious and memories, which at first sounds like a good thing. Y'know, because there's no fighting over who's the real one and all that. Buuut… How do I put this…? Well, first of all, the way I have to be injured for this whole thing is kinda gross. But more importantly, I don't want my boo to look at anyone else, not even a literal extension if myself… There's no way you could get that, because you are repulsively non-exclusive and unable to grasp the concept of love and devotion, but I hope you at least manage to understand the literal meaning behind my words. In other words… Your ability would serve as a one time gimmick in bed at best. Nothing more."
Yuki spoke condescendingly, her voice being unusually soft at the end to put emphasis on Cinderella mediocrity. Almost as if pitying her, but obviously not actually feeling bad or empathizing. Her grip on Cinderella's heart hardened, though she had to be careful not to simply crush it. She was curious however if it would regenerate around her hand if she kept her hand in its spot.
"Are you actually trying to say that you are jealous of a hypothetical body that shares mind and consciousness with yourself?"
That was exactly what Yuki was saying. She was not the incarnation of envy for nothing, after all. Looking into Cinderella's pinkish red eyes, which remained mostly unbothered by the pain, it was difficult to say how offended she was. But Yuki of course hoped she caused as much offense as possible. Especially, since she was hopefully about to end this encounter.
"Anyways… Do you wanna know the weakness of your ability?"
"There isn't one. It's not even an actual ability correlating to a specific title of mine, rather it is just something I have, so you can't just turn it of. Sorry to burst your bubble there."
"Eh, that's okay. It is of no concern to me. I kinda did hope stopping your heart would just have you die because that'd be your secret weakness… But whatever. Since you all share a consciousness, psychological attacks should wipe every last one of you out simultaneously."
"Psychological attacks? What now? You wanna scare me to death? Show me something disturbing and hope I lose the will to live?"
"No. You've got that disgusting look filled with lust when looking at me, so I reckon you noticed how beautiful I am."
"The way you said that was weird but yeah, I guess…?"
"Like, how every fiber of my being has you scream literal perfection when looking at me, and how my very presence has your eyes watering because of how grateful you are to be near me?"
"Uhh…"
"Now imagine that, but multiply it infinitely."
"Kinda hard to imagine…"
"I know… Dumb and pointless as your mind is, it simply lacks the capacity to comprehend beauty of that caliber. Which is why experiencing it is gonna hurt real bad."
"Experience it…?"
"Isn't it obvious? Rejoice, slut. I will lift all the visual suppressors of my beauty, and share it with you."
"Visual suppressors? Alright, I get that you're hot. Like, gorgeous and all that. Easily the most gorgeous thing I ever laid my eyes upon. But how much more beautiful could you possibly—"
True, absolute beauty. A concept as associated with perfection and divinity in its purest forms. When exposed to something so utterly incomprehensible, the human mind is destined to fail to reason. No matter what Cinderella was in the end, at her core, her mind remained that of someone who was born imperfect, and lived imperfect.
As Yuki through her against the wall, her open chest immediately regenerated and she looked up at Yuki looking down at the in comparison hideous creature beneath her feet. Cinderella was, by regular standards, without a doubt beautiful herself. Yet, in this very moment, she did not only forget how she looked like, despite loving getting to picture herself in her mind throughout the day, on top of that she also forgot even the appearance of the most basic things. It would not be exaggerated to say she forgot about literally everything she ever learned and had observed, not because of some spell or forced effect. She forgot everything because what was in front of her was of such profound beauty and significance, that her brain simply removed anything comparatively unnecessary from her memory. She could not move, as the only purpose of movement surely had been to bring her to this very position from where she could gaze upon true beauty. While her heart raced at a abnormal pace of 437 bpm, her pupils dilated to the physical maximum. As she continued to stare at Yuki, her nose and ears began to bleed. But it was no regular nose bleed, it was her brain giving out continuously, despite being regenerated over and over again. The exact same physical reaction could be observed with all the other Cinderella's, spread across the town and parts outside of town, which had been prepared there as a safety precaution in case she wanted to regenerate outside to escape. Images from her life passed through her mind, while it fought desperately to not die and leave an immortal body behind. Memories she had suppressed, or forgotten. From a life filled with much less jokes and laughter. Whether she wanted to see those memories or not, she was left with no choice in the matter. As she underwent the most complex mental state in her life, Yuki just looked at her with a neutral, yet incomprehensibly beautiful expression.